The London-based Palestinian Return Centre (PRC) has followed, with deep concern, the statements recently released by the Swiss Foreign Ignazio Cassis regarding the role played by the United Nations Works and Relief Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA).

PRC is extremely shocked by Cassis’s statements, in which he said the UN agency for Palestinian refugees is fuelling "unrealistic" hopes of return after 70 years of exodus and is therefore helping keep the Mideast conflict alive.

"It is unrealistic that this dream (of return) will be fulfilled for all," he said in an interview given to several German-language papers owned by the Swiss NZZ group and published on Thursday.

PRC condemns, in the strongest terms, the Swiss diplomat’s statements, which contravene international laws and resolutions guaranteeing Palestinians’ inalienable right of return to their motherland—Palestine.

PRC believes Cassis’s remarks stand is sharp contrast to international resolutions, particularly General Assembly Resolution 194, which enjoys sustained, universal and overwhelming consensus, having been confirmed more than 100 times in the last 50 years.

Cassis’s unilaterally pro-Israel statements are at odds with the universal tide of condemnations and widespread protests sparked by Israel’s unwarranted use of armed force against civilians at the border with the besieged Gaza Strip.

The biased statements by the Swiss minister represent a digression from Switzerland’s historically neutral position and run counter to the UNHRC’s resolution of May 18, 2018 demanding an independent probe into Israel’s crimes at the Gaza border.

PRC calls on the Swiss government to account for such unilateral comments and to immediately remove them at a time when dozens of Palestinians have been massacred in cold-blood by the Israeli military.

PRC will send a memorandum to Switzerland’s Foreign Ministry, as the first step in a chain of protest moves triggered by the one-sided statements.

PRC appeals to the international community, Arab and Islamic governments, and the UN Member-States to take urgent diplomatic action in favor of UNRWA and in response to Israel’s oppressive policies against the Palestinians and infringement of the refugees’ right of return.

The largest demonstrations flared up on the day the US moved its embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Occupied Jerusalem on Monday, which saw Israeli forces kill some 65 Palestinians, pushing the overall toll well over 100.

UNRWA is meanwhile struggling to cover a massive budget shortfall, after major donor Washington slashed its 2018 funding.

The Palestinian Return Centre is an independent consultancy focusing on the historical, political and legal aspects of the Palestinian Refugees. The organization offers expert advice to various actors and agencies on the question of Palestinian Refugees within the context of the Nakba - The catastrophe following the forced displacement of Palestinians in 1948 - and serves as an information repository on other related aspects of the Palestine question and the Arab-Israeli conflict. It specializes in the research, analysis, and monitoring of issues pertaining to the dispersed Palestinians and their internationally recognized legal right to return.